


Shelter Me

by Cynchains



Category: The Outsiders - All Media Types, The Outsiders - S. E. Hinton
Genre: Angst, Comfort, Hurt, Language, M/M, Slash
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-23
Updated: 2015-04-23
Packaged: 2018-03-25 10:37:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3807211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cynchains/pseuds/Cynchains
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dallas didn’t like to ask people for things.  If they were offered, great, otherwise he’d just figure things out on his own.  Tim always figured him out pretty quick, though, without him having to explain too much.  That was kind of the reason he had come here tonight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shelter Me

**On the Fence**

  
_This ain't no place for losers_  
_Or the innocent of mind_  
_It's a full time job_  
_For anyone, to stay alive_  
_~Joe Cocker_

 

Tim leaned over the dilapidated wooden fence with half a cigarette dangling from his lips. It was hard to keep the smile off his face as he watched the long, lean form atop a huge, dark horse. Tim didn’t know the first thing about horses but he knew it took some level of skill to look as confident and graceful as Dallas did riding that beast. Tim knew that was the one thing that Dallas had going for him. It was the one thing he could truly be proud of. And he was proud without ever even bragging about it the way he did with other things in his life. Riding was maybe the only thing he did honestly because he knew he owned the skills.

Dallas rounded a corner atop that massive horse that Tim hated to admit he would be terrified of and he ducked away. He left before Dallas saw him. That little punk didn’t need to know Tim was there watching him.

Tim didn’t even know himself why he enjoyed watching Dallas ride. He just knew that it gave him some kind of calm.

**XXX**

  
Tim had just gotten home from a meeting with a few guys from his gang when he heard footsteps coming up the stairs and then a knock on his bedroom door.

  
“Come in,” Tim grumbled.

  
“Hey, Tim,” Dallas said as he entered the room, gently closing the door behind him.

  
Tim looked up from the edge of his bed where he was untying his boots and his eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Oh, hey, I thought you were Curly coming in here to bug me.”

  
Dallas plopped himself down at the foot of Tim’s bed and leaned back against the wall. “Don’t insult me.”

  
Tim stood up and pulled his shirt up over his head then tossed it on a pile of dirty clothes in the corner of his bedroom. “What are you doing here?”

  
Dallas shrugged and picked at an imaginary spot on the blanket next to him.

  
Tim started unzipping his jeans, quickly becoming tired of Dallas’ quiet brooding. “I’m going to bed, man. It’s late and I had a long day.”

  
Dallas still didn’t open his usually wiseass mouth. He just lit up a cigarette and looked out the window. That’s when it dawned on the older hood. “You need to stay here, Dal?”

  
It took a minute before a soft “yeah” was said quietly without him looking away from the window.

  
Tim took his jeans off and smacked Dallas in his foot. “Then take your shoes off and get comfy, man, cause I won’t be awake much longer.”

  
Dallas stubbed his cigarette out in the ashtray on the windowsill and pushed himself off the bed. He stripped off his jacket and dropped it to the floor. Then he kicked his boots off before emptying the pockets of his jeans and laying a couple crumpled dollar bills, his cigarettes and lighter on top of Tim’s dresser.

  
Tim got into bed and looked up at his friend, wondering why he was being so quiet. Usually, you couldn’t shut him up. “Dal, you alright?”

  
“Yeah, man I’m alright,” he answered hesitantly.

  
“Dal, you know, it’s okay if you ever need a place to stay. Come over whenever, man,” Tim said as he tried to keep the annoyance out of his voice from being so sleepy and having to deal with whatever was going on in Dal’s head.

  
“You coming to bed, Dallas, or you just gonna stand there all night?” Tim asked roughly.

  
Dallas took his shirt off, exposing the bruise on his ribcage from his old man’s kick. He climbed over Tim and faced the wall, before curling up in a ball. “Sorry.”

  
Tim looked over at his friend, all curled up and threw some of his blanket over him. “You gonna tell me what happened?”

  
Dallas looked back over his shoulder and met Tim’s gaze in the dark. “Nothing, man, just got into it with the old man and needed somewhere to sleep. I didn’t realize it was so late.”

  
“Like I said, anytime you need to, come on over. The door’s always open.”

  
“Thanks,” Dallas said and rolled back over.

  
**XXX**

  
Dallas didn’t like to ask people for things. If they were offered, great, otherwise he’d just figure things out on his own. Tim always figured him out pretty quick, though without him having to explain too much. That was kind of the reason he had come here instead of going to the Curtis’.

  
He had wanted to shake the feeling of fear he’d had and the toughest person he knew was Tim so to him it was the logical choice of where to go. He figured maybe he and Tim could have a few beers, maybe hunt up some action and he’d feel like his regular old self. He wasn’t thinking that it was two in the morning and maybe Tim would be going to sleep.

  
Tim was out like a light while Dallas slept restlessly next to him. He kept having dreams about his father all night and his ribs were sore and that was making him uncomfortable.

  
His old man had been drunk earlier when Dallas had gone home and gotten a little handy with him. For once, he let it get to him. It wasn’t too bad, really. Nothing like what went on at Johnny’s house but still. His father usually just hollered at him or ignored him. He didn’t generally hit him, but tonight he had and it scared Dallas because he wasn’t expecting it. He hated admitting even to himself that he had been scared but it was the truth. He was old enough to know that you had to expect the unexpected but sometimes you forgot.

  
A couple hours after they had fallen asleep, Dallas woke up gasping for air and shivering. Another replay of the fight with his father had woken him up scared stiff. He felt a lump in his throat, and the thought that he felt like he could cry just pissed him off.

  
He looked over his shoulder at Tim who was lying on his back and snoring lightly. He thought Tim looked so innocent asleep. If he didn’t know any better, Dallas would have thought him just some regular guy, not the tough hood that he was.

  
Dallas pulled the covers tighter around himself and gently moved back closer to Tim to feel his warmth. He held his breath when he heard Tim take a deep breath and roll over to face Dallas. He stayed completely still until he was certain that Tim hadn’t woken up before he closed his eyes again.  He didn't want to be caught trying to snuggle like a stray dog.

  
He could feel Tim’s light breath on his bare shoulder and it made his skin prickle up with goose bumps. There was something comforting about being close to someone else instead of alone. Then Tim’s arm was around his waist and Dallas’ eyes popped back open.

  
He glanced back at Tim and thought he was still dead asleep until Tim stretched a little and moved closer to Dallas and spoke groggily. “You okay?”

  
“Uh, yeah,” Dallas answered quietly, afraid to move even an inch.

  
“You can’t sleep?”

  
“Uh … I was … having a bad dream,” Dallas said.

  
Tim groaned a little and tightened his grip on Dal’s waist. “I’m here. Go to sleep.”

  
Dallas turned his head away from Tim again and went back to facing the wall, but Tim kept his arm around him and didn’t show any sign of removing it. It didn’t feel bad, just … weird.

  
"You’re safe here,” Tim spoke softly, still half-asleep.

  
Then Tim was snoring again. Once Dallas heard that, he forced himself to try and relax. He’d never been held like that by anyone. He’d never been reassured or comforted when he had bad dreams and he didn’t know how to handle it. It was tempting to bolt out of there, but he really didn’t want to so he just closed his eyes again and let Tim’s soft snoring lull him back into sleep.

  
**XXX**

  
Tim awoke late in the morning with Dallas' back pressed up against his chest and his arm around his thin frame. He could feel the gentle up and down of Dallas’ breathing against him and he didn’twant to disturb him so he just lay there, vaguely remembering Dallas saying he’d had a bad dream, and Tim telling him something about being safe.

  
He looked at the mess of blond hair in front of him and the bony shoulder against him with a black bruise in the shape of the tip of a boot on the back of it. He’d never known Dally’s old man to beat up on him. Maybe the guy just knew to hit him where people couldn’t see. He was no stranger to it himself.

  
A little while later, Dallas started to wake up. Without thinking, Tim kept his arm around him as Dallas turned to face him. The blond appeared to have forgotten where he was for just a second then relaxed back into the blanket, sighing.

  
“How you feeling?” Tim asked, his voice raspy from sleep.

  
Dallas yawned and tucked his hands under his chin, snuggling down into the bed. “Better than when I woke up before.”

  
Tim was glad that Dallas didn’t seem spooked by where his hand was and the fact that Tim’s thumb was moving back and forth lightly over his naked waist. He kind of liked the feel of Dally’s bare skin against him and didn’t want him to get up yet. “I’m glad. Your old man always hit you like this?”

  
Dallas shook his head, his expression almost bashful … or embarrassed. “He hasn’t hit me in years, Tim. He really hasn’t. It was just …”

  
“You’re pretty banged up,” Tim cut him off while his eyes roamed over the angry bruises littering his milky, white skin. “Good thing it ain’t on your face,” Tim said, matter-of-factly.

  
Dallas smirked. “Yeah, it would mess up all my prettiness, right?”

  
“Yeah, it would,” Tim whispered just before he tilted his head down and quickly brushed Dallas’ lips with his own.

  
_Fuck! What the fuck did I just do??!!_ Tim screamed to himself in his head.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Christian for commiserating with me last night about this. 
> 
> Feel free to leave a note and let me know what you think. I don't bite ... much.


End file.
